Our History

In the beginning

Lynn Hughes and Nina Czegledy conceived a physical game concept - later called the Different Abilities project- at the Technoculture Art and Games (TAG) lab, Hexagram, Concordia University, Montreal. The proposed card game aimed to explore ideas and issues related to various physical and mental abilities/disabilities. “Ability Jam” the first brainstorming event took place on May 2nd Saturday and May 3rd Sunday 2014 at Concordia University. Following thematically related presentations and a participatory discussion group participants preceded to prototype various games. The results of “Ability Jam” were so promising that a decision was made for further development. Concurrently, Lynn Hughes was invited to curate a game related exhibition and were also invited to present the Different Abilities card game workshop at Transitio_MX 06 in Mexico City.

January 2014

November 2014

A tale of two cities

Nina Czegledy invited Lynne Heller and Judith Doyle to form a collaboration between OCAD U and the TAG lab to develop the Different Abilities card game and present it at the Transitio_MX 06 workshop. Lynne Heller recruited students, Anna Lew and Martin Shook from the department of Graphic Design in the Faculty of Design, OCAD U. Judith Doyle suggested involving Robin Len, an artist and designer with acquired brain injuries (ABI).

Dobble Debate emerges

The design of the cards as well as the game structure progressed further. The Toronto and Montreal teams crafted different versions of the game in order to expand the workshop potential. At the TAG Lab in Montreal, under the guidance of Lynn Hughes, Gina Haraszti and Iqrar Rizvi continued to develop the game methodology for the project. At OCAD U in Toronto, the team adopted the title “Upside Downside” for the game before finalizing the title “Dobble Debate”.

January 2015

July 2015

Becoming more accessible

Fabiola Hernandez Cancino, a MITAC intern at OCAD U, joined the team and assisted in the translation of the text of the game into Spanish.

Going international

Dobble Debate was first formally workshopped at Transitio_MX06, a festival of new media and video that took place in Mexico City in. The game went on to be presented at numerous events, inviting audiences to participate and contribute feedback towards the development of the game.

September 2015

June 2018

The next wave

Dobble Debate launched a new round of workshops to continue exploring ways of addressing dis-and-differing abilities and gathering feedback on game methodology.

About Dobble Debate

Dobble Debate is an educational card game that uses humour and imagination to promote discussion and teach players about dis- and differing abilities.